Walking to the end of Southern Cross Highway No.20
Trip Start
Nov 06, 2006
1
64
99
Trip End
Dec 31, 2008
Chulai, Yuli,
Taiwan
Monday, May 28, 2007
Total Distance: 33 km
Altitude up: 400m
Altitude down: 1.200m
Having a good sleep - now I am convinced that it will remain an unfulfilled dream. Unluckily this night the hunters gunshots echoing in the mountains are not the last noise in this quiet village without traffic. Loud voices , or better one loud one and several toned down ones are to be heared. The alcoholic son of our landlady and the husband of his smart and hard working Vietnamese wife is standing on the crossing shouting. At first I hope the whole thing will just go away, but not so. I stand up and have a look from the balcony. Here I see the son running criss-cross over the street shouting something while the two ladies following him and trying to calm him down and get him back into the house. A few times it looks as if they could succeed, but he always escapes from the house time after time. I watch for a while considering if I should say something or not. Finally I appeal friendly ( as I can ), but clearly that he may be more quiet, hoping that a foreign guest's wish may bring some sense into his empty brain. After about 10 minutes it becomes quiet. All this happens between 2 and 3:30am in the night. I still find another 3 hours sleep till half past six in the morning.
For breakfast four toasts we bought the day before from a moving bread car which the wife toasts and serves with hamburger meat, onions and milk tea - hey, the breakfast is taking shape.
Chulai, goal for today and end of No. 20
While sitting there the kids come by and buy their breakfast before going to school. One of the kids is a 6/7 year old boy with running nose whom I had met the day before. The comes to me saying: " Do you show me the photos about Germany as you have promised me yesterday?" A promise is a promise. So I take the set of pictures I carry with me for such purposes out of my backpack and show them to him. He is very interested and has many questions which Tsai Chin and I answer as good as we can ( seldom kids are so curious about my Germany pictures ). He asks me if Germany also has horses and I confirm, but unluckily have no such picture - I still have to go back and bring him a book with horses, it's not forgotten my curious friend. Also the Vietnamese wife looks at the photos, but does not have much time.[ I have the feeling that the Vietnamese wife is well accepted and respected in the village and by the family. ] At 7:15am we leave with many " Good Byes " and " See you again ". At first it goes a bit up to road No. 20 at km 177 and from there down to Wulu hot springs. The way has beautiful mountain scenery and a kind of gorge between Km184 and 186 ( Wulu ) with hot water dropping from the cliffs of the gorge. Beside the road almost boiling water is running from a pipe into a small pond. Wulu has an old traditional hot spring and a new fency hotel called " Chief Hot Spring Hotel ". Behind the hotel an old red bridge spans over the gorge and continues on the other of the river with a 2 km section of the old Japanese cross mountain trail we have seen before a few times. The trail goes almost vertically up and ends 250m higher on the upper section of road No.
Phantastic tunnel view
20, a part we have just walked, but at that time have not seen the trail entrance. The walk up and down takes about an hour. Wulu village is really set a few km up the mountain. We get a lift on the flat bed of a small van up to the village - the aboriginal name is Bulu Bulu [ There are several explanations for the name, one being from the sound of bursting mud bubbles when hot water and steam comes to the surface. ] In a park near the school we see two original canons used by the Japanese to secure their interests. The village is small but well organized. We also see a small cute painted homestay in a traditional house. The more we walk down the main road again the more the valley opens up, becomes wider, as does the river, a view similar to the one in Wulai/Fushan near Taipei. On this section shall be 4 hot springs, 3 along the river and one up a mountain for 5 hours- we see the entrance. On the way we see a very skinny dog chained to a pole in the middle of nowhere at the entrance to a field. The dog is very scared at first, but then eats the bread and cookies we have and drinks some water - hope someone will look after the dog, good luck We visit one more aboriginal village called Hsinwu when it begins to rain stronger and stronger - a real thunderstorm. We keep going and almost everything gets wet. A bus driver stops and aks if we want to go with him. Tsai Chin decides to do so until the exit village called Chulai. I thank the driver and decide to walk on the 3.5 km into Chulai - I just want to finish the Cross Highway on foot and cross the finish line. We meet again at the Chulai police station at km 205.A policeman takes us in his car to Che Shang's train station in the inner rift valley.We take the train to Yuli, because Antong, our next place to start walking has no train station anymore. A nice hotel near the train station is for 800 TWD. We miss the bus to Antong and later we find out that this is a much cheaper place than the fency hotsprings in Antong. The evening is newspaper ( finally I get again an English one ) reading, eating and coffee drinking.
It is easy to see the different levels of development in the villages. I feel that this has to do with a strong and creative leadership by the Chief or mayor of the villages, who can unite the people and work for a common goal.
